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Knowing-Doing Gap How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action

By Jeffrey Pfeffer

Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do. Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire.

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Book Information

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Publish Date: 11/29/1999
Pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9781578511242
ISBN-10: 1578511240
Language: English

What We're Saying

May 06, 2008

The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a major feature titled "New Breed of Business Gurus Rises. " The article provides a ranking of the thought leaders in business today. The ranking system is based on the 2003 book What's the Big Idea? READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 02, 2008

Strategy and the Fat Smoker is David Maister's latest book (among a history of many books). From a different perspective, he approaches the subject covered in The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton back in 2000. Originally, each chapter was written as a separate article, so you can pick and choose where to start. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

February 11, 2009

Last week Todd and I hosted a 100 Best event at Stanford. This was the largest gathering to date of 100 Best authors west of the Mississippi River! Joining us were Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap; Chip Heath, with Made to Stick; and Randy Komisar, with The Monk and Riddle. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 15, 2009

You may have noticed that we released a new issue of ChangeThis yesterday. What you may not have realized is that Marty Neumeier, the author of The Aesthetics of Management, is also the author of Zag: The #1 Strategy of High Performance Brands, one of The 100 Best Business Books of All TIme. The manifesto is a "look at a few of the principles that artists have used successfully, [to] see how they might apply to management. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 11, 2011

In another installment from the annual review of business books we produced last year, we have an article from friend and former president of the company, Todd Sattersten. In it, he discusses the meta-themes in business thought that he and Jack uncovered as they spent 18 months compiling, reading, choosing and writing The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ The Five Universal Themes in Business BY TODD SATTERSTEN What happens when you spend 18 months reading the best in business literature? READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the smart talk trap. Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.

About the Author

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University where he has taught since 1979.

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